Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power.

Understanding how something works is the beginning of being able to change it. That holds at the scale of civilisations and just as firmly for a household budget, an illness, or a machine you depend on, since not knowing leaves you dependent on whoever does. Knowledge shifts the balance quietly, with no announcement. It also brings an obligation, because a power you now hold is a choice you now have to make.

Pick the thing you currently rely on other people to explain to you. Learn enough of it to ask one sharp question. The difference in how you get treated tends to show within a month.